Bankers said the government’s move last week to provide Rs 10,000 in advance to non-gazetted staff may provide only a slight relief.
Many banks have made ‘SOS calls’ to the Reserve Bank for additional cash for the first few days of December to meet the initial rush of people, already fatigued standing in unending queues to exchange/deposit old notes and make limited withdrawals over the past three weeks after the demonetisation was announced on November 8.
Banks have to make additional arrangement including security deployment, said a senior banker of Canara Bank.
Many banks are contemplating to set up additional counters for withdrawal to meet the rush.
“At SBI we have enough currency supply. At some pockets there was shortage, but there also funds are being made available,” State Bank of India’s deputy managing director Manju Agarwal said.
Despite recalibration of nearly 70 per cent of ATMs do not have cash, while people are struggling with the problem of change as the operational ones dispense mostly high denomination Rs 2,000 notes.
Nearly 23 days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi
announced the cancellation of legal tender of old Rs 500/1000 currency notes, small traders, truckers and construction workers are facing hardships in going about their business.
